


Haunted

by siesiegirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen, swanfire au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3800338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siesiegirl/pseuds/siesiegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma's apartment is haunted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haunted

This apartment was haunted. The neighbor lady helpfully informed Emma over the housewarming cookies she brought, that funny things happened here, ever since its resident back in the fifties died. He saved a kid from a train but didn't make it out of the way in time, himself.

"He sounds like a good man," Emma said, thinking there could be worse types, if one had to be haunted (if they really were).

"Oh, he was," the neighbor gushed. "Good, brave, kind. Neal Cassidy, his name was. A few years back there was a family living here. The man was... well, he was bad news. Always so much shouting and breaking things and crying. Sometimes she would ask me to watch her little boy while she was at work, if _he_ was home that day. I wouldn't trust my child with him, either. Well, one night it was really bad, and the next day that little boy was too 'sick' to go to school. The man started having trouble with his key not turning in the door. And it seemed the hot water wouldn't work for him, and the stove - it was a gas range back then - would flare up sometimes. Caught his sleeve once; burned his arm real bad. He couldn't use it for a good long while, for _anything_." She smirked wickedly.

Emma smiled. That _was_ a handy coincidence. "You think it was the ghost of this Neal guy?"

"I truly do," the neighbor nodded. "Some people who live here - good people, honest people - never notice a thing. But bad people... all kinds of problems."

Ahh, so it was like that. Be good or the ghost will get you. Well, Emma wasn't likely to do anything to piss off this supposed sixty-years-dead champion of justice, so she nodded politely throughout the rest of the conversation and bustled the old lady out the door before Henry came home from school.

The neighbor - Mrs. Lucas - never mentioned the ghost again to Emma, nor ever to Henry, which was just fine. Emma hadn't seen any sign of him (it?), and if Mrs. Lucas was to be believed, they wouldn't anyway. So what did it matter whether Neal was real or not? Emma forgot all about him within a few months. 

***

_Wake up, Emma_.

Emma sat straight up in bed, certain she'd heard someone say her name, _in her room_. She turned on the light on her nightstand, but the room was empty. Everything was normal, except her door was open. Weird. She'd closed it when she came to bed. Across the hallway, Henry's door was open, too. She'd closed that after tucking him in, so the light and sound from the tv in the living room wouldn't keep him up.

"Henry?" she called out, though she couldn't hear him in the bathroom, or getting a drink from the kitchen. Why would he open her door, anyway? She slid out of bed and walked over to his room, and he was right there, in his own bed. "Hey, kiddo," she said, softly, in case he was still asleep. He didn't respond, and she smiled and stepped into the room to kiss his forehead, just like when he was a baby. 

His head was hot. Too hot. "Henry?" she said again, worry creeping into her voice. She gently shook his shoulder, but he didn't wake up. Something was _wrong_. "Henry, come on, buddy." She shook him more, sat him up, but he was limp in her arms. Limp and burning up.

She scooped him up out of bed and carried him to the front door, grabbing her keys from the entryway table with the hand under his knees. Before she could even fumble with finding the right one, though - and not to mention the chain and the deadbolt, too - the door just _opened_. 

Emma stared at it. What the hell was happening? And then she could swear she felt a hand against her back, pushing her toward it. She hurried out into the hall and just as she turned back to pull the door closed behind her, it closed on its own. And then she heard what sounded like the deadbolt, but it must have been something else, right? She shook her head and carried Henry down to the car to drive him to the hospital.

***

"Hey there, sleeping beauty," Emma smiled when Henry's eyes finally opened after his fever broke. 

"Hey, Mom," Henry offered her a weak smile. His voice was scratchy but sounded beautiful to Emma. "Was that my dad?"

"What?" Emma frowned, "The doctor?" Henry wasn't even awake the last time he'd been checked on.

"No," Henry rolled his head on his pillow. "In my room. There was a guy. He said I was gonna be okay."

"You _are_ gonna be okay," Emma said, smiling again. "But the rest was a dream, from your fever."

"I _heard_ him," Henry insisted, though Emma could tell he was losing the fight against sleeping again.

"Just rest, kiddo, you've had a rough night." _And morning._ She stroked his hair, still damp with sweat. "I'm going to find the doctor and see when I can take you home, okay?"

"'kay," Henry mumbled, eyes already closed again.

***

The door didn't open itself again when she brought Henry home, and she was surprised to realize she'd been wondering if it would. She shook her head and sent Henry to the bathroom to clean up and change, as she looked through the kitchen for something to feed him. Something light, the doctor said, and plenty of fluids. 

When she opened the refrigerator door, the bottle of apple juice fell out and almost landed on her foot. "What the-" she started to yell, but then slowly smiled instead. A good man, and kind, Mrs. Lucas had said.

Emma whispered, "Thanks, Neal."


End file.
